1-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: New York Times?

Market-lagging returns could be written in this one star.

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 125,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, newspaper publisher New York Times(NYSE:NYT) has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at New York Times' business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Over on CAPS, nearly 75% of the 126 All-Star members who have rated New York Times believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. Among the total bearish population are iamacanadian and wjwcapital, who is ranked in the top 3% of our community.

Two weeks ago, iamacanadian tapped the decline of The New York Times as a sign of the times: "The paper-based news source is fading, and as much as the NY Times has done well with their site and on-line content, it won't be enough to keep them going."

In a pitch from one week earlier, wjwcapital publicized the company's dangerous debt load:

This stock looks like a value trap to me with lots of debt ($1.1 billion) and negative working capital of $810 million. Additionally, when intangibles (including goodwill) are removed from assets and only tangible assets are included, the total assets of the Company approximate the total liabilities. I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of impairment of intangibles needed for the company at the end of the current year, which could further cause adverse impacts to their earnings. Based on these factors, the outlook for the stock does not look favorable in my view.

What do you think about New York Times, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 125,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.